Report on Oroville Describes Urgent Dam Safety and Flood Lessons

Much of California’s dam and flood infrastructure is obsolete and falling apart. It needs to be fixed now, says a report entitled “The Oroville Dam Spillway Incident and Lessons from the Feather River Basin.” The authors of report are from CSPA, Friends of the River, South Yuba River Citizens League, and American Whitewater. These organizations warned more than a decade ago that the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway was completely inadequate.

DWR still needs to build a complete emergency spillway at Oroville, say the groups. But this is only the start. The report makes dozens of recommendations for bringing existing waterworks into the 21st Century, in an extensive review of California dams, flood manuals, floodplains, and regulatory delay.